20 executive summary theibcdaily The connected economy
Embracing change head-on
Mike Darcey COO, BSkyB
Region: UK By Adrian Pennington I
s new technology powering the change in media consumption or are consumers calling the shots? It’s a ques- tion of semantics for BSkyB Chief Operating Officer Mike Darcey. “Underlying the changes is new technology capability which tends to shake-up consumers simply by presenting them with the chance to do what they always wanted to but were
prevented from doing. But realistically there is no new consumer behaviour. We like to communicate and relax and we like to be mobile and be entertained. You can call mobile TV a new behaviour but we’ve been watching TV for 80 years and we’ve been walking on earth for a lot longer!” Broadcasters have to adapt to survive and Sky is a past master. Having amassed 10.6m UK household subscribers with predictions by some analysts that it had reached a plateau and must face down the threat of OTT operators undermining its business, the triple-play broadcaster recently unleashed internet TV package NOW TV. “We embrace new technology as an opportunity and don’t think of OTT as a threat,” says Darcey. “We saw a great new opportunity to expand the number of people we get content to and as a way to reach out to new customers.”
There is no new consumer behaviour
In fact, he says, Sky got into OTT long before it was even called that. Sky GO (then Sky By Broadband) was the broadcaster’s first OTT service launched in 2006. “It was perhaps a bit before its time, when broadband speeds were not what we hoped for, but we learnt a lot in that period,” explains Darcey.
“As a business Sky has evolved constantly over the last 20 years
in broadening the way we deliver content and services. The story for us has always been about growing the number of customers and embracing new opportunities when they arise.” One technology it pioneered on a worldwide level is 3D. The Sky 3D channel, which launched in October 2010, is now enjoyed by more than 250,000 Sky subscribers. “Growth in 3D has been pretty much as expected,” he says.
“Take-up is linked closely to the sale of 3DTV sets which in turn is linked to the cycle of TV replacement which has slowed due to the economy. An improved consumer environment will help and will be progressed further as prices come down and as glasses-free displays emerge. In terms of content, 3D remains a largely event- driven format largely because the investment is in sports, festivals, movies and set-piece documentaries.”
A spesker at the Leaders’ Summit and a keynote speaker in the IBC Conference Darcey, is passionate about bringing the heads of commerce together with those in technology development. “Both sides can be a bit detached,” he says. “Technologists can
be inward-looking about the great new things they could do, at the same time strategists can be detached from what technology is capable of. I am keen to be involved in initiatives that cross-pollinate those communities, to understand what opportunities new tech- nology might bring and also bring technologists closer to under- standing what the commercial approach is. IBC delivers on this.”